When Is an Isis a Venus?

In the ancient world, distinctions among representations of
individual divinities are not always clear-cut. A typical example
of this blurring of boundaries is the small bronze group of Venus
and Cupid that was found in the Egyptian Fayoum
and purchased by the University of Michigan in 1925. The statuette
portrays a standing deity identifiable as the goddess Venus by
the small winged figure of Cupid, her son, perched on her right
shoulder.

The goddess stands on her right leg with her left leg bent.
She rests her left elbow on a pillar and holds her right arm akimbo.
She wears her outer garment folded at the waist in the manner
of Venus Genetrix, who was the ancestress and patron deity of
the family of Julius Caesar. Presumably she wears another garment
beneath her outer one, although the worn surface of the statuette
makes it difficult to differentiate between garments and flesh.
Due to corrosion, the details of her face are almost indistinguishable.
Her hair rises up from her forehead, with the sides plaited and
drawn back, and her only jewelry consists of a bracelet on her
right wrist. Cupid dangles his right leg alongside Venus's right
breast. His left leg is bent, and he holds a small round object--perhaps an apple or a pomegranate-in his right
hand.

Because this statuette was found in Egypt, it was believed
to represent Isis, an Egyptian goddess associated with the fertility
of women and agriculture, and her divine son, Harpocrates, in
the guises of Venus and Cupid. Isis was identified with a wide
variety of Hellenic and Roman deities, including Artemis/Diana,
Demeter/Ceres, and Aphrodite/Venus, and during the Graeco-Roman
period her images often incorporated Graeco-Roman hairstyles,
garments, or attributes. The main cults of Harpocrates were located
at Pelusium in the Egyptian Delta and in the Fayoum oasis, where
Harpocrates was worshipped in several guises. Outside of Egypt,
Harpocrates was typically portrayed as the nursing child of Isis.
Graeco-Egyptian terracotta or bronze statuettes, like this Kelsey
figurine, were produced in great numbers.

Although syncretizations of Isis and Aphrodite/Venus are popular
in the art of Graeco-Roman Egypt, this particular statue lacks
certain attributes that would readily identify the goddess and
god-child as Isis and Harpocrates. For one thing, when the maternal
aspect of Isis is emphasized, the goddess commonly is portrayed
as seated and nursing her son. This makes the placement of the
boy-god on the shoulder of the Kelsey standing goddess an unusual
choice for a hellenized Egyptian statuette. In addition, the goddess
does not appear to be wearing a headdress to distinguish her as
Isis. Finally, the identification of the boy-god as Harpocrates
rather than Cupid is difficult to justify because the winged god
lacks the traditional features of Harpocrates: he wears neither
the sun disk between two horns nor the Egyptian royal crown and
uraeus; he does not wear his hair in a sidelock; he does not suck
his thumb. Without such Egyptian attributes or a known archaeological
context for the Kelsey statuette, it is only possible to identify
this Venus and Cupid with Isis and Harpocrates in a very general
sense.

The Kelsey statuette does, however, conform to a statue type
that was well known in Roman Italy, both in terms of the drapery
and the figural grouping. In Rome itself, a Venus with a Cupid
perched on her shoulder was posed and draped in a manner that
closely parallels that of the Kelsey figurine. This Roman Venus
Genetrix adorned the late first-century BC/early first-century
AD pediment of the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus.
Such portrayals of Venus also were adopted by imperial women for
their own statues. For example, a marble statue from an imperial
villa at Punta Epitaffio, Italy, portrays Antonia Minor, the mother
of the emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), as Venus. Her outer garment
is folded at the waist in the manner of Venus Genetrix, and a
small Cupid perches on her left hand, leaning against her shoulder.
Imperial images such as this one adapted the statue type established
for Venus, as represented by the Augustan pediment and the Kelsey
figurine, in order to highlight the motherly characteristics of
the represented imperial woman and to suggest the assimilation
of the woman to Venus, the patron goddess of the Julian family.

The date of the Kelsey example is uncertain, although it could
be contemporary with or later than the images of imperial women
as Venus Genetrix. If so, the Kelsey statuette might incorporate
an element of imperial iconography, which may provide one possible
explanation for the presence of a statuette of Venus Genetrix
in the Fayoum.